Extracted from the Evening Standard's daily newsletter (Robbie Smith):

If, post worldwide nuclear apocalypse, there are any radio stations still broadcasting they might say something like: the fallout continues. Well, the same applies to last night's US Presidential debate which, while less cataclysmic than armageddon, is more immediately relevant to this newsletter.

Donald Trump, despite declaring it "our best ever debate" and that he won by "a lot" has said he'd be "be less inclined to" have a rematch with Kamala Harris. Her team are baying for one. Make of that what you will.

What I want to focus on today, though, is what I'm calling the British-American Reality Warp.  Let me explain. Harris won last night's debate. August commentators thought so and snap polls taken afterwards agreed. So, you'll have seen, did our front page (*).

Trump, aside from losing, said some pretty crazy stuff. His false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets weren't just grim in and of themselves but had very uncomfortable echoes of extreme claims about marginalised groups.  Watching the debate, realising that Kamala Harris appears to have mastered the difficult art of taming The Donald, or reading about their clash in the press afterwards, it may surprise you that this race is incredibly close. But it is.

American political analyst Nate Silver (the one who's good with numbers) has Harris only just over two percentage points of Trump right now. Reminder: Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump at the 2016 election by just over two percentage points on the popular vote - but lost the electoral college easily, 227 to 302 for Trump.  Even if Trump does lose to Harris, tens of millions of Americans will still vote for him.

The takeaway (a word I will break my own rules and use because we're talking about America) is that when it comes to thinking about US politics most Britons will have to apply a powerful strong corrective lens to their own intuition and understanding.  In fact, you may be better off simply taking all the things you think and turning them upside down. That's as true as ever even after last night's debate - though it may have an effect yet.

It's a salutary reminder of just how far apart America and Britain are. Cousins, yes, but very, very distant ones.

(*)  I've tried copying & pasting an image of the front page, but it came out huge &, with my limited knowledge of such things, I couldn't find a way of reducing the size.

The dogs & cats being eaten by immigrants in Springfield, OH story beggars belief!

Off topic, I loved the comment about "takeaways", as I share Robbie's abhorrence of the word, though the Beeb, in common with most media these days, seems to use it with gay abandon! 

Stircrazy wrote:

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Stircrazy wrote:

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Trump, aside from losing, said some pretty crazy stuff. His false claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets weren't just grim in and of themselves but had very uncomfortable echoes of extreme claims about marginalised groups. 

The dogs & cats being eaten by immigrants in Springfield, OH story beggars belief!

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You couldn't make it up - except JD Vance did & has admitted it!  The man is unhinged, just like his would-be boss.    

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I've done a bit more digging & it would appear that The Times misrepresented the facts somewhat.  The Beeb gives a more accurate picture.  It seems that all Vance actually did was to rehash a local resident's (baseless) story & claim that it was true.  He presumably accepted it as credible & "created" a narrative which then attracted media attention.  That doesn't excuse his willingness to exploit the story, nor Trump's in repeating it.

Latest bet365 odds :

Harris 10/11, serial lying cheating conman, fighting a terrible campaign ( both in conduct, and how counterproductive it has often appeared ) 10/11.

Of the generally agreed 7 tightest states, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are probably the ones really needed by the Democrats ( the more I look at it, the crazier the electoral college system appears in that so much can depend on who edges a handful of states ). 

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 26th of September 2024 11:23:23 AM